Hidden European Gems

Budapest is Europe's most underrated capital in my opinion and also in close proximity to a lot of other great cities including Belgrade, Bratislava, Vienna, and Zagreb which are each worth seeing and distinct from eachother. You can travel cheaply by train to all these cities and see the countryside on the way.

Eastern Europe is filled with well-hidden countries like Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia. These indeed are gems of Europe. I have read many articles where the travel experts believe that Eastern Europe will be more popular in 2013.

I think that even on "mainstream" tourism destination countries you may find lots of hidden gems if you look beyond the usual destinations. For example parts of Greece such as mountain villages of Parnassos, Giona and Evritania or Western Greece around Ioannina or even Northern-Eastern Greece such as Evros area have a lot to offer. Although more popular nowadays, places such as South Peloponnese are incredibly unspoilt too. Google Methini,Koroni, Voidokoilia beach for example or Metsovo, Ioannina and you will see absolutely beautiful towns and landsapes outside the large tour operators randar! There are many low key islands too, for example Lemnos, google Platy LEmnos and you'll see a great sandy beach that gets 1% of a similar beach on popular islands would get!

Visit one of the nicest gems of Sebia, the Tara mountain and national park Mokra Gora.....there you will come across "Drvengrad" made by Kusturica! The nature is to die for...If you are interested in night life- Belgrade is the right choice!!!